Welcome to the EFG Software information section

WinFeed 3 is a powerful tool for animal and poultry nutritionists. This feed formulation software has been designed to be of use to a wide range of users working in the field of nutrition.

Home mixers

Farmers wanting to mix their own feed will find WinFeed an invaluable aid in minimising the cost of their feeds whilst ensuring that the nutrient requirements are met, as well as in deciding upon the prices that they would be prepared to pay for different ingredients.

Ingredient suppliers

The powerful parametric features in WinFeed are ideal for pricing ingredients by seeing how the inclusion rates interact as the relative prices of different ingredients change.

Consultants and Nutritionists

Control of the ingredients and prices pertaining to all the clients being serviced by a consulting nutritionist, and the many advanced calculation features, make WinFeed the ideal tool for a consulting nutritionist.

Research Institutes

Some of the more powerful features of WinFeed, such as the ability to define nutrients as linear expressions of other nutrients, make this an indispensable tool for research nutritionists.

Universities

The many and varied advanced features included in the WinFeed software make this a powerful and useful tool for teaching the principles of feed formulation to students of nutrition.

Now that we’ve looked at who can benefit from using the software, read on to learn how this multifaceted software combines all your data to give you the best possible result for yours, or your client’s, unique circumstances, aiding the user to make decisions with complete confidence.

Broiler nutritionists are accustomed to using least cost formulation programs to formulate feeds for their broilers, but until the advent of simulation models, such as the Broiler Growth Model produced by EFG Software (Natal), they were not able to predict the biological and economic consequences of using those feeds in commercial broiler operations. Our latest development is another huge step forward in assisting nutritionists to optimise the feeds and feeding programmes for commercial broilers. Our optimisation software will enable you to maximise profitability for the enterprise by assisting you to design the best possible feeding programme for the broilers under your control.

This optimisation software combines a feed formulation program, a broiler growth model and an optimisation routine, to assist the nutritionist in determining the optimum nutrient density and the optimum concentrations of amino acids relative to energy in each feed in a feeding programme, as well as the optimum amount, or length of time, that each feed should be fed. These are problems that involve both nutritional and economic decisions, which cannot be solved without the use of specialist software. The three programs have been integrated to make the optimisation process both simple to implement and efficient to use. Outputs include excellent graphics and summary tables, and data are also exported to spreadsheet files, making further manipulation of the results simple and straightforward. No other software is available that can perform these functions.

In essence the method combines these three programs. The optimiser defines nutritional constraints for practical broiler feeds, which are passed to the feed formulation program, where the least-cost feed that meets these constraints is determined. The characteristics of this formulated feed are then passed, as input, to the broiler growth model. The performance expected from this feed when given to a defined flock of broilers in a given environment is predicted, and this predicted performance is then passed to the optimiser to complete the cycle. The next cycle starts by the optimiser modifying the feed specifications, moving, according to some in-built rules, to an optimum point. The objective function to be optimised can be defined in terms of any output from the broiler growth model. Examples are margin over feed cost, margin per m² per annum, or maximum breast meat yield.

The optimum economic amino acid content of the feed in each phase of a given feeding programme will decrease as the birds age, and this optimum will be dependent on the dietary energy content used in each phase. The optimiser determines the relationship between the amino acids and energy within each specified feeding period that will maximise or minimise the objective function. The objective is not to determine independently the optimum ratio in each of the feeds on offer, but to determine the optimum amino acid to energy ratio in each of the feeds in the feeding programme such that the overall performance is maximised. Because the performance on one feed impacts on the performance on subsequent feeds, this is an essential prerequisite in optimising the feeding of broilers.

To optimise amino acid contents the process works only with lysine. The contents of the other essential amino acids are controlled by reference to an (user-controlled) ‘ideal’ protein ratio. In the present version of the program both amino acid and energy contents are optimised simultaneously, although the user may fix either of these, thereby increasing flexibility.

Given that the user wishes to retain a given ratio between the essential amino acids and energy, the program will optimise the nutrient density in each of the feeds in the feeding programme, by maximising the objective function over the entire growth period. As Fisher and Wilson (1974) have shown, the optimum nutrient density depends on such factors as sex, the ratio between input and output costs, and mixing and transport costs. These factors, and others, may be considered by the user in determining the optimum nutrient density of each of the feeds in the programme that will maximise overall performance or profitability.

Many broiler producers do not have the opportunity of having feeds mixed according to their specifications, but make use of proprietary feeds. An almost infinite variety of options is open to such producers in designing their feeding schedule, which can be based on amounts fed in each period or on fixed feeding periods for each feed. The optimum feeding schedule is dependent on the composition of the feeds, their respective prices, the revenue to be derived from the sale of the broilers, and many other biological and economic considerations.

The purpose of EFG Software (Natal) is to develop and sell computer software that aids decision-making in the animal production industries. A secondary purpose is to encourage and take part in research aimed at improving animal modelling. Because models are best seen as scientific tools, EFG policy is to share with the users, mostly professional scientists, the theory and ideas on which the model is based and to discuss openly the derivation and importance of the numbers used for many parameters. This policy of openness also facilitates modification and development of the model to suit the specific needs of your business.